


Nocturne

by pterodactylichexameter



Category: Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: F/M, Outdoor Sex, Skinny Dipping, Smut, Swimming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-08-07 15:46:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7720591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pterodactylichexameter/pseuds/pterodactylichexameter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aelin and Rowan find a moment alone on their way to Terrasen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nocturne

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by multiple tumblr anons

They were only a few days across the border when they found it: the small spring that trickled over the rocks into a small, sun-warmed pool.  Aedion had stumbled on it first, calling them over where they drank the cool water and rinsed off. Here the streams ran down from the mountains clear and fresh, rising and falling with the seasons.

As soon as she saw its clear depths, Aelin knew exactly what she wanted to do and had stood up. “We’ll have to camp farther upstream. There’s no fish here.” 

Rowan glanced over at her from a few rocks away where he was splashing water over his face, letting it run down the back of his neck.  _ You’re scheming something _ .

She gave him a sweet grin.  _ I have no idea what you’re talking about _ .

So he let it drop, and by the time the cicadas were thrumming in the trees, they’d eaten their fill of fish, caught courtesy of Lysandra, lying back with her feet close to the fire.  She and Aedion were discussing some sort of poison Aelin had only heard mention of before and didn’t care to know much about anyway.

Avoiding eye contact, Aelin pulled a clean set of clothes from her pack and rose from where she’d been sitting next to Rowan. “I’m going to have a bath in that spring we saw. Does anyone--”

Rowan leapt to his feet from where he was reclining by the fire. “I’ll go.” His voice was gruff, as if he’d spoken before realizing what he was saying, and she smirked at him.

Lately the tension between them had risen to a near unbearable level.  If she walked behind him, she’d find herself staring at his back, taking in the muscles moving beneath his shirt. If she walked in front of him, she could feel his eyes on her as if his looks could carress.  He’d gotten bolder with his touches, too, grazing the skin where her shirt rucked up in her sleep, or wake her in the middle of the night to pull her into the woods where he’d press her against a tree and kiss her until her lips were swollen and her legs no stronger than a pudding.

Aedion and Lysandra pretended not to notice, but Aelin hardly believed they were thick enough not to notice.

While Rowan was gathering a clean set of clothes, Lysandra leaned over to Aedion, smirking. “You couldn’t pay all the spidersilk in the world to get in the middle of that.”

Aedion huffed out some response Aelin didn’t bother to hear, too busy grinning at Rowan.

They ignored his grumbling and set off, hand in hand, following the rocks of the stream.  The moon was close to full, clear water glistening in the white light of the branch they only had to follow to get to the side pool.

“We’re less than a week away,” Rowan said, pushing a branch aside for her to get through.

Aelin smiled up at him, nudging his side. “Let’s not talk about that right now.”

His eyebrows rose. “No?”

“No, let’s just forget about everything tonight.”  As much as she was yearning to get back home, to face the reality of the childhood wrenched away from her, there was still a part of her that wanted to leave everything, to let herself be happy with the people she loved and not go marching into the inevitable battle ahead.  “Please,” she added, softer. Rowan was her respite from those thoughts, and he knew it.

“Okay,” he said, bringing their twined fingers to his lips, kissing the back of her hand. “While we can.”

Something jerked inside her, tugged on her heart, at the dangers ahead of them.  But she shoved those aside, tugging him along quicker.  “Good, now are you going to  _ come on _ or not?”

He chuckled at that, his hand slipping out of hers when she skipped ahead. Aelin let out a laugh, shoving everything else aside and taking off into the woods in a sprint, breathless and eager to  _ live _ .

Rowan spit out a curse and was after her in a heartbeat. It was fun like this, exciting, something he might have even needed more than she.

They raced after the other, laughing and tearing through the trees, at each other’s heels. When Aelin slipped into her Fae form with a burst of speed, a breathless laugh escaped with the weights slipping from her shoulders, careless and joyful and  _ free _ .

She skidded to a stop at the spring, throwing her clean clothes down on a flat rock.

Rowan was half a step behind her, nearly barrelling into her, catching himself against her back. He could’ve beaten her if he’d really wanted to, or left her in the dust if he’d shifted, but the chase was half the fun of it.

Aelin squealed, pulling at her clothes to get in before him.

“You’re getting faster,” he breathed quickly, stumbling into her as he pulled off his boots.

“You bet your ass I am.” She didn’t stop to think about what they were doing, just wanted to win whatever competition they had going. They were familiar enough with each other’s bodies that she didn’t have any hesitations about bathing in front of him--or swimming or whatever they were doing. 

She tugged her pants down over her hips and jumped in, nearly gasping at the cool water around her.  The pool was small but deep enough that her toes only brushed the bottom with her head under the water.  Cooling her skin, flushed from their run. A shock of feeling.

A splash broke behind her, Rowan jumping in after her.

Aelin waited, grinning, half under the water, and as soon as he’d surfaced, shaking the water out of his eyes, she splashed him again, hooking her arms around the bare arm reaching for her.

Rowan laughed, legs skimming against hers. “Do you want to start a  _ war _ , Fireheart?” She bit her lip, looking at him from under her eyelashes and holding his arm to stay afloat. “My feet touch the bottom and I don’t think you can say the same.  Is that really a fair fighting chance?” 

“Hmm, I suppose I’ll settle for a rematch some other time, then, when we’re on equal footing. Wouldn’t want to have the upper hand.”

He scoffed, eyes rolling. “I hardly think--”

“Rowan,” she teased, amused, because as much fun as wrestling in the water sounded, she’d waited long enough for this.

He quieted, shaking his head, water droplets flying from the ends of his hair.

The water, still agitated from their grand entrance, was chilly enough that she sent out a few pulses of heat, warming the area around them to the temperature of a freshly drawn bath.

“Show off,” he teased, reaching up with the arm she wasn’t holding on to to flick a strand of wet hair off her cheek.

She met his eyes, shining bright green with the light reflecting off the pool and was suddenly aware of her breasts pressing into his upper arm and the fact that only the water was separating them.

“I don’t know why they didn’t want to come with us,” he said with a shake of his head, looking back to their clothes strewn over the rocks at the edge of the pool.

“Well I don’t think either of them would be interested in seeing your bare ass.”

He drew in a mock gasp. “Aelin, everyone wants to see my bare--”

She meant to kiss him to change the subject and pull away just as fast, but the moment her lips touched his, she remembered  _ why _ she’d been desperate for a moment alone in the first place.

Before she could pull away, his hand delved into her damp, tangled hair and he tilted her head to kiss her deeply, mouth opening against hers.

Aelin groaned, long and low, and pushed closer, sliding to his front, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.  His skin was warm and slick under her fingers and she immediately wondered just exactly how far Aedion or Lysandra’s hearing might reach.

“Not far enough,” Rowan murmured, breaking away to press his lips to her throat.  He enjoyed teasing her like this, she’d found out before, with his canines pricking the skin just above her pulsepoint. There was something heady and warm about having him there, knowing the power he held in his hands, that she willingly gave to him.

Every limb in her body felt heavy and weightless all at once and his arm that had been wrapped in hers found her waist, pulling her against his bare torso beneath the water.

He’d touched her body plenty of times before--in training, inking her tattoo into her skin, a casual brush every now and then--but where those had given her flutterings in her stomach,  _ if _ that, now the way his palm pressed, warm, into her lower back had her alight with fire. It might as well have been magic, with the heat flooding through her.

“There are other options, you know.” She ran her fingers through the hairs at the nape of his neck.

She could practically feel his question:  _ What _ other things?

Aelin grinned against his cheek, drawing his hand away from her hair, moving it down until it brushed the skin beneath her navel.

A low rumble escaped from his lips, a rough purr, “Aelin.” The way his mouth wrapped around her name, like a prayer, had her pulse leaping in her veins. She leaned in to taste the skin of his throat, savor the sweat and scent of him.

But she didn’t have to urge him on, his hand drifting down, knuckle brushing the patch of curls between her thighs. He sucked in a small breath, ducking in to kiss her again, slowly, making her toes curl where her legs were hooked over his hips.

She moaned into his mouth when he parted her folds, gently, taking his time, finding the sensitive pearl that had her nails digging into his back.  His touch shot through her body, resounding in every nerve and he knew it, too.  The way he moved against her, so  _ deliberately _ , made her wonder if he’d thought about this.

And she wanted him to know how he made her feel, opening her mind to him so he could see what he did to her: the wanting, the desperate need throbbing between her thighs.  

A growl rose in his chest and he pressed slow circles with his forefinger.  Even with all the need she was barraging him with, pulsing through that gap in his mental shields he let down for her, his caress was tortuously slow, and she could only imagine the way he’d touch her body if they were truly alone. 

The kiss she pressed to his lips was sloppy, shared breath filling space between them. She couldn’t get close enough to him, wanted to breathe him in and have him to  _ herself _ . In a bed. With a roof over their heads. No one to disturb them. . .

Rowan nibbled at her ear as he sliding a finger down, pushing at her entrance.  _ Is this _ \-- he started to ask, but she arched, pressing against him.  She couldn’t help the noise that escaped when he eased inside her, knew she shouldn’t risk being loud, but with Rowan’s breath hot on her neck and his hand between her thighs. . .

“You have to be quiet,” he murmured, drawing out slightly and adding another finger.

It took every ounce of resolve in her to bite her tongue at even just the stretch of two. “You did that on purpose, you bastard,” she whispered, shifting against him.

And paused.

Because he was hard against her, jutting against the bottom of her thigh where her legs were wrapped around her waist.

She would’ve teased him, but the ease that his fingers moved with no resistance in her had her aware of how matched they were.

“I want you, Rowan,” she groaned into his skin. He knew what he was doing, two fingers in her and his thumb on her clit, and between the waiting and dancing around each other, he had her rising faster than she could even imagine.

There’d been no time, no peace, to ever give herself any more than casual attention here and there, and now her flesh was hypersensitive to his every touch.

“I know, but not like this,” he murmured, nipping at her jaw, canines pricking her skin. Magic seemed to flutter around him, a breeze raising chills on her arms, static crackling in the air around them, as if he was barely keeping himself contained. His skin felt almost cool to the touch, and it wasn’t until she saw her own skin flushed pink that it was  _ her _ that was heated, fire licking through her veins.

She traced the top of his spine, grinding down against the slow draw and pull of his fingers in her.  “How, then?”

His smirk washed over, and he kissed her slowly, purposefully. “I don’t want you holding back when I fuck you, Aelin. I want to hear you  _ scream _ when I’m in you.” 

She swallowed her groan, eyes sliding back in her head.

Rowan’s arm tightened around her middle, anchoring her to him

She pressed her face into his neck and panted with the sudden pressure rising in her. Everything was alive with energy: their bodies the air around them, even the water. Her hand seized his forearm, holding him in place, whimpering.

“Come on, Fireheart,” he murmured into her skin.

Pleasure rippled through her in time with his fingers, so much larger than hers, rough and calloused and learning her body, what made her breath quicken and her heart beat faster. 

“Rowan,” she gasped suddenly, crying out as every muscle in her body tightened against him, release shattering through her. 

He was murmuring in her ear with each throb of earth-shattering pleasure, telling her how beautiful she was, how tight and wet she felt around his fingers, how much he wanted to be in her. As he brought her down from her high, she shuddered against him at the growing sensitivity with each touch.  Wishing she could surrender completely to him, she released that want, even as she was brimming with contentment.

“I know,” he murmured into her hair, kissing her ear. She could tell how much he wanted her, could feel the pulse of his desire beating against her mental shields even though he’d technically already taken care of her.

So she drew back, finding his mouth in a deep kiss, tilting her head to draw his lip between her teeth.

“Let me,” she whispered, reaching down to wrap her hand around his length. “Please.”

Aelin didn’t need to ask twice because he was nodding, wordless, and carrying them both over to the edge before she could blink.  He helped her crawl out and then heaved himself out after, water sloshing against the edge.

On him in an instant, she dragged her nails down the vee of his hipbones as she knelt on the rock, ignoring the discomfort in favor of  _ him _ in front of her.

Before, of course, she’d only ever guessed at the bulge in the front of his trousers. Once she’d even woken before him to find him half hard against her ass, but he’d turned over upon waking, not even realize she knew what was going on, and they’d never mentioned it.

Now, though, Aelin’s mouth went dry at the sight of him. She was no stranger to males--had seen her fair share, at least--but Rowan was. . . significantly different.

“Aelin, you--” he started, biting off his words when she licked a long line up his length, taking him carefully in her hand.

“I’m already--you don’t need to--”  _ tease _ .

And he certainly wasn’t wrong, already leaking at the tip. She glanced up at him when she licked the drop away, eliciting a snarl as his hand delved into her hair.  For all of Rowan’s possessive streaks, she would never distrust him with her body, and she knew he felt the same, could feel the trust in the way his legs seemed to weaken a little, could feel his shields slacken as he relinquished himself to her. 

That trust only made her want to return the favor for what he’d done. And besides, it wasn’t as if she didn’t enjoy this. Seeing him tremble and his muscles flutter with what she was doing to him. . . She didn’t understand how some men considered this a subservient position when it was exactly the opposite. He was completely at her mercy and he knew it.

So she wrapped her lips around him, humming as she eased him deeper. Her nails dug into his thigh and when she pressed her tongue just under his head, his hips jerked forwards.

“I didn’t mean--”

But she shushed him with a squeeze to his thigh and made the same motion, hand rubbing in time with the draw and push of her mouth. 

“I’m almost--You don’t need to stay there if you don’t--”

But she wanted that, wanted to taste him, and eagerly took him as deep as she could, relaxing her throat. If he thought she was going to pull away at the last second, he was wrong, and she fully intended to show him so.

It only took one more swirl and press of her tongue as she pulled back, then on him again, eyes watering. He groaned softly, biting his lips to keep from making any more noise and tugged on her hair as he spurted down her throat.

She watched him with adoring eyes, took in the water glistening along his abdomen, the curve of his torso, thighs tight with the steady throb of his release, pulse jumping in his veins.

Even so, he’d hardly been in her mouth more than a minute. The prospect that he’d been that close, simply from using his fingers on her, had her shuddering.

A curse fell from his mouth when she released him with a slick pop and she rose, wrapping her arms loosely around him to nuzze into his chest. She wiped at her mouth with the back of his hand, the taste of him heavy on her tongue. She was still as breathless as him.

Rowan’s fingers tangled in the ends of her wet hair as he rubbed her back, catching over the dips and rises of her spine and scars. “You’re incredible.”

She was about to shoot back a sly comment but he glanced down at her. “You already know that though, don’t you?”

“What can I say?”

His smile faded and he ducked down to kiss her cheek, almost somberly.  “I want to do this every night with you.” 

She traced patterns on his bare stomach, wanting that as much as he did.  “And some mornings, too.” The thought of sharing his bed again was a comforting one, regardless of whether or not she started her day off with Rowan’s teeth and hands and tongue. 

This was easy with him. She never doubted his love or want to be with her and there were some things: waking next to him every morning, knowing he was there to support her and she just as eager to support him, trusting him with her life, her mind, her body. . .  Life seemed worth living with him next to her.

His lips brushed the corner of her mouth. “Mmm, do you think Aedion and Lysandra will raise hell if we sleep next to each other tonight?”

“Maybe. . .” She grinned and slid her hands around to squeeze his ass. “As long as your hands don’t wind up down my trousers.”

“I think we both know it’d be  _ your _ hand in  _ my _ trousers, Aelin.” He nudged her nose with his, offering a smile that reeked of wickedness.

“I’m not saying anything to that,” she said primly, knowing full well that he was right.

She knew they had to be getting back, refortify their shields and get some rest for their journey tomorrow, but she didn’t want to  _ do _ that, not with Rowan there, grinning down at her with a teasing, easy look on his face.

But when they  _ did _ make it back and Rowan pulled his sleeping mat right alongside hers, it was Aedion who rolled his eyes and Lysandra who grinned like a sly cat, waggling her eyebrows at Aelin.

Aelin waved the woman off with a laugh and waited till their companions were both asleep before she curled into the warmth of Rowan’s arms and it was only then that she drifted off to sleep to the rise and fall of his breath.

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is what keeps me going so pls comment!
> 
> Come join me in my trashcan on [tumblr](http://pterodactylichexameter.tumblr.com)!


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